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FORMER US NATIONAL security adviser John Bolton has failed to show up for an interview with impeachment investigators.
His move makes it unlikely that he will provide any testimony to the House about President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine.
An attorney for Bolton, Charles Cooper, said his client had not received a subpoena. Cooper had previously said Bolton would not appear without one.
A House intelligence committee official said the panel has no interest in engaging in a drawn-out court fight over a subpoena for Bolton and will simply add the White House’s instructions against testifying as evidence of the President’s obstruction of Congress.
Even as Bolton was a no-show, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence came to the Capitol to speak to impeachment investigators .
Jennifer Williams, a career foreign service official detailed to Pence’s office from the State Department, was subpoenaed to appear.
She is one of several White House aides who were listening in on a July phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump asked the new leader to investigate Democrats, according to an administration official.
That call is at the centre of the Democrats’ impeachment probe.
Speaking to reporters in New Hampshire, Pence stood by Trump and said if Americans read the administration’s rough transcript of the call they will find “there was no quid pro quo, the president did nothing wrong”.
Pence called the impeachment inquiry a “disgrace”.
Investigators are wrapping up the private interviews as they prepare to start public hearings next week.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff announced on Wednesday that three State Department witnesses will appear in two hearings next Wednesday and Friday – top Ukraine diplomat William Taylor, career department official George Kent and Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine.
Yovanovitch was ousted in May on Trump’s orders and Taylor replaced her. Both have testified about their concerns over the administration’s policy on Ukraine.
Democrats scheduled 13 witnesses to testify behind closed doors this week, but so far only Williams and another State Department employee, David Hale, have shown up. Trump has directed his employees not to cooperate with the probe.
Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family and also Ukraine’s role in the 2016 US presidential election.
Though Trump has said there was no “quid pro quo,” several of the witnesses, including Taylor, have testified that it was their understanding that Ukraine would not receive military assistance or a coveted Oval Office visit until it met the president’s demands.
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Can the sore losing Democrats not just wait for next years election when the american people get their chance to vote for who they want.
The biggest witch hunt in history is going on for the last three years.
@Michael Maher: I think the people of Salem Massachusetts, would disagree with you there.
@Jack Simpson: oh dear
@Jack Simpson: Sense of humour much nah?
@Michael Maher: Dumbest president in history was obviously always going to do something stupid enough to allow the Dems to impeach.
@White Rabbit: The Dumbest President ever with the Dumbest apologists for his behaviour.
@Jack Simpson: right over your head.
@White Rabbit: with the dumbest followers.
@Anthony John Cotter: how dumb does that make the opposition??
@Michael Maher: like they did in 2016 when the majority of American people voted for Hillary instead of Trump?
After all Trump did not win the popular vote so he is not what the majority of American’s wanted as president.
@Michael Maher: so don’t do the job the Constitution says they should do
@Gods Curse: Gods curse indeed
@Anthony John Cotter: That is a great argument.
@bmul: The constitution doesn’t mention anything about creating hoaxes to impeach a president.
@Barry Somers: So what?!
1) Trudeau’s party, in the most recent election, didn’t win the popular vote, the conservatives did, yet Blackface Trudeau is still in power.
2) UKIP got nearly 4 million (~12%) votes in the ’15 election yet got 1 seat.
3) This happens all over the world. No system is perfect. Trump won. Quit whinging!
@Jack Simpson: what hoax he admitted it
@Michael Maher: Trump has lowered the office of president with his behavior. The American constitution not only allows for but calls for checks and balances to hold that office to the highest standards. Trump will be impeached quite rightly and then voted out.
@Michael Maher: you forgot Salem and Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General in Essex, England.Trump is only one person.
@Michael Maher: OK Boomer.
@Michael Maher: He fiddled the books with his charity he is messing about in other country’s internal politics to his own benefit. This is wrong and it not sore losers it is the law that they are defending
@Jack Simpson: What hoax. These are all facts that they are working on and barring his employees from answering questions is not what a person who had nothing to hide would do
@Tracy Moore: Not at all likely but wishful thinking by you.
@Bobby Moore: He might turn you into a Toad
Nothing to see. Move along.
Many would have been more shocked if he did turn up!
@Unitedpeople: He is “sleeping with the fishes Sonny,my boy” ….
Why use a picture of Colonel Sanders?
@Ciaran: I thought it was Mark Twain mate:-)
In the words of the whistleblower’s lawyer Mark Zaid circa 2017 “a coup has started” and that “impeachment will follow ultimately.”
Say no more…
Much more important things going on. Boris Johnson is currently in Tayto Castle, Tandragee
President Pence is something we are going to have to get used to
@Stevie Doran: Thats frightening for a whole lot of other reasons
@Stevie Doran: An ultra right wing Christian fundamentalist, who will do everything in the name of his God, let us pray for the World.
@Stevie Doran: he will be a lame duck president and only have a few months in office if Trump does get removed. He is all kinds of messed up alright but won’t have long enough to do much damage.
OK boomer.
have your say